Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/119

garb of nature is not considered immodest. They find delight in the simplest forms of natural beauties, and they plant their standard of beauty on a simple base. A rough and gnarled tree, or even a mere trunk or stump; a bare twig or branch without leaves or blossoms; an old stone; all kinds of flowers and grasses have in themselves a real natural beauty. A Japanese admires the beauties of nature just as they are; he loves a flower as a flower. The Japanese truly worship Nature in all her varied forms and hold communion with all her aspects. They enjoy the simplest amusements with the simplest toys which, cheap and frail, may last only an hour, but easily yield their money's worth and more of real pleasure. They find the greatest happiness in such simple recreations as going to see the plum blossoms or cherry flowers, and gazing at the full moon. They are, in comparison with Americans, childish in their simplicity; but they succeed in extracting more solid enjoyment out of life than any other people on the globe. Americans sacrifice life to get a living: Japanese, by simply living, enjoy life.

And this leads to another impression and characterization of the Japanese people as merry, lighthearted, and vivacious. Careless, even to an extreme; free from worry and anxiety, because easily satisfied with little, and because inclined to be excessively fatalistic,—they not only are faithful disciples of the Epicurean philosophy, that happiness or pleasure